hither and thither

hither and thither (not comparable)

1. (rare, now literary) To here and to there, in a reciprocating manner.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:

     "Thou shalt read the hearts of men as an open writing, and hither and thither shalt thou lead them as thy pleasure listeth."

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 54”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], OCLC 365836:

     And the passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace. It urged him hither and thither.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VI:

     “A kleptomaniac,” I said. “Which means, if the term is not familiar to you, a chap who flits hither and thither pinching everything he can lay his hands on.”

   • 2022 December 14, David Turner, “The Edwardian Christmas getaway...”, in RAIL, number 972, page 35:

     In contrast, the Westminster Gazette in 1912 was much more positive about railway staff, praising the "...army of porters hustling and bustling hither and thither with barrows groaning under the weight of bags and baggage and... the ever-patient and long-suffering guards, courteously giving information and advice to the querulous passengers... to the porter the Christmas season means a continuous round of heavy labour, extremely tiring to both nerves and temper, and this fact the public too often seem either to forget or ignore."

2. (figuratively) In a disorderly manner.
   • 1895 October 1, Stephen Crane, chapter 12, in The Red Badge of Courage, 1st US edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 119:

     Presently, men were running hither and thither in all ways.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter V:

     It was fortunate that I was not holding a tea cup as she spoke, for hearing Sir Roderick thus addressed I gave another of my sudden starts and, had I had such a cup in my hand, must have strewn its contents hither and thither like a sower going forth sowing. As it was, I merely sent a cucumber sandwich flying through the air.

• from pillar to post, from post to pillar (obsolete)
• hither and yon (dated, literary)